We Are All Cleophas

We Are All Cleophas

Henry Ossawa Tanner († 1937), an African American, was born in Pittsburgh in 1859, three years before the abolition of slavery.

At the age of thirteen, Henry Tanner observed a painter with his easel in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. He decided that some day he would be a painter himself. Keeping his resolution, he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts when he was twenty years old. In 1891, at the age of thirty-two, after making something of a name for himself, he set out to study in Europe. Seduced by Paris and the reception given to him by the circles of artists that flourished there, he took up residence in France, where he remained until his death forty-six years later.

During the first years he had to wage a true spiritual battle against the seductions of an artist’s life in those great days of Paris in the late 19th century. At Christmas 1896 he sent greetings to his parents, adding: “I have decided to serve God more faithfully.” From then on he specialized in biblical subjects, in particular scenes from the Gospels: “I always wanted to use my art to express my faith. The creation of biblical art allows me to synthesize my spiritual conviction with my artistic practice.” This synthesis would become the vehicle of an explicit missionary commitment: “Through art, I seek to convey a greater reality, a reality imbued by the light of faith.”

His genius would very soon be recognized: His Daniel in the lions’ den was accepted at the 1896 Salon (the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts), and The resurrection of Lazarus was purchased by the French government after he won a Salon medal in 1897. Like the work that illustrates the cover of this April issue of Magnificat, these two works are exhibited today at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

And He walked with them

With Christ and his disciples on the road to Bethany, painted in 1905, Henry Tanner moved from realism toward impressionism, while still inspired by the symbolism of painters like Maurice Denis. The artist conveys to us first his “impression” through a subdued version of the “Tanner blue” produced by a color scheme of indigo and turquoise. This subtle palette creates a dusky atmosphere, tinged with a vibrant hope. The little sun that hovers over Jesus in no way resembles a sun at its setting. By its white clarity it lightens the nocturnal blue of the picture, as though the Risen Lord had left to his followers in the world the halo of his glorified body until he returns. “May his light enliven the flame of our faith in the Resurrection”: this is the message the artist is sending to us. And by having Jesus and the landscape appear still in the color green beneath the darkness of the evening as it falls, he bears witness that this faith is the basis of Christian hope and gives meaning to the often mysterious history through which we make our earthly pilgrimage. The scene is depicted at the moment the two disciples meet Jesus, without recognizing him. They walk toward us; they are right at the edge of the picture, as if by taking another step they would leave it and ask us to take their place. Thus the artist invites us to identify with their walk, with their doubts, with their fears, but also with their willingness to listen to the Scriptures.

            To walk with Jesus, to listen to his Gospel with our hearts burning, to recognize him in the breaking of the bread: the road to Bethany here proves to be a universal, timeless metaphor. It invites us to advance on our way through life, while letting ourselves be bathed by the intimate, ardent light of faith in the Lord’s Resurrection.

Pierre-Marie Dumont
Christ and his disciples on the road to Bethany (detail, c. 1905), Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), Orsay Museum, Paris. © akg-images / Erich Lessing.